Chat about the game...

Seeing as the welcome page is still racking up page after page I figure a separate dedicated thread about the game - questions, reminders, notes, out of character discussion, anything to do with the game in here!

In referance to the slightly ongoing discussion about speed and sonic effects, I'm going to weigh in on the side that reguardless of mass, speed is the most important component of creating a shockwave. doubling speed creats much more energy then doubling mass does. Also, the sonic boom is created by air being compressed by an object surpassing a particular speed. An object traveling at high enough speed would produce a compression wave.

Also, in the specific case of Stormbreaker, when he's holding his sword he gets a 5 AP density increase effect automatically, upping his weight to 7 APs, or 3 tons. So in his particular case we have a 3 ton object flying at mach 32

Looks like you need to update the information scroll on the home page. Not sure what you are going to replace it with but it should be interesting.

Will update info scroll

Dunecat - I'm not a scientist (I think I spent my Physics classes at school staring at a girl I couldn't pluck up the courage to ask out) but I *think* the size/mass of the object would be more of a factor than weight. For sure, aeroplanes that travel beyond the speed of sound are aerodynamic, but they are generally huge things as well, and make a big hole in the air which fills when they pass. A human being? Not so big. It's hard to imagine a sonic boom being anywhere near as loud from a human being but I guess we'll never know Of course, I may be wrong about all this, and be better off sticking to handwaving the whole thing with a gallic shrug and a c'est la vie

Size does matter in this case. A city bus moving past you at 45 MPH creates a bigger wind force than a small car moving past you at the same speed. Trust me on this! Try it standing on the very edge of the curb while wearing a blindfold and you will really feel this difference!!!!!!

Why don't we say that if you actually wanted to use your superspeed as a sonic boom attack or something like that, you have to state it and roll for it? And if you don't, you don't even leave a sonic boom attack behind you.

You wanna vibrate through walls, you need dispersal.

You wanna create wind funnels or drag crooks along in your wake, you need Air Control.

A sonic boom actually forms in front of an object traveling fast enough rather then behind it, additionally greater speed creates more force and energy then greater mass does. When firing a bullet, doubling the mass will produce twice the impact force, doubling the speed creates around 4 times the impact force. That's why armour piercing rounds tend to be smaller and fired with lots of powder in the cartridge.

A quick look at wikipedia:

"When an object passes through the air it creates a series of pressure waves in front of it and behind it, similar to the bow and stern waves created by a boat. These waves travel at the speed of sound, and as the speed of the object increases, the waves are forced together, or compressed, because they cannot get out of the way of each other, eventually merging into a single shock wave at the speed of sound. This critical speed is known as Mach 1 and is approximately 1,225 km/h (761 mph) at sea level and 20 °C (68 °F). In smooth flight, the shock wave starts at the nose of the aircraft and ends at the tail."

It gets into some math and physics of how this all works but that's a little more detailed then we need. What is specifically important is that the speed rather then the mass or air resistance is the most important component of creating a sonic boom. Now, if we want to avoid the whole issue because it's not commonly used in comics I'm all good with that

If anyone wants to get into this more, here's the link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_boom

Turns out I have to eat my own words. Further down the page it explains that the faster an object goes, the tighter the sonic boom gets (the less area it effects) I suppose this explains why flash and superman don't mess things up, at their speed they might just make a boom cone the size of a needle behind them. Additionally, air displacement is a key factor and the size of the object is another key factor in the size and power of a sonic boom... whoops.

I will admit that I understood very little of the science on that page. My eyes glazed over and i was all reduced to strange squiggles, so I cannot really comment on it. However, I am fine if it is declared that, as a genre rule for the game, there are no damaging sonic booms created by characters no matter how fast they move, or that there will only be damaging ones generated if the player intends to cause one, with all the ill effects descroibed as normal.

How about we agree to make sonic booms a story based thing rather than try and model the effects in game... After all Superman with 25APs strength would cause an earthquake, Flash would suck everything up behind him in a backwash for miles around, most of what Reed Richards does wouldn't work and Batman would be killed in a hail of automatic gunfire - though he is depicted as more than human in the Justice League books than his own titles, saving the day when the most powerful people on the planet are dumbfounded.

Also, a heads up - been burning the candle at both ends all week with my horrible shifts, so will manage only a couple of updates before hitting the sack tonight. On the flipside I'm off work monday-thursday so watch for updates more regularly

So, I got the new character draft off to you Paul, Sorry about the mix up there. And dont feel the need to push yourself to much, make sure you get enough rest

as, he was a friend. Had the 'other Joe' said that?

OOC Been digging out some of the back story from 2009 I know we lost some of the posts thanks to the goon who ran the website we originally played on, but seeing as Joe and co are back in the time we started, may as well make use of those old names and places again That said only you remain of the original trio (you, Kendal, Harry, I think David came a few months later in 2010) so much of it won't make sense to the other players.

Yeah, I joined later. It's one of the reasons Putty doesn't exist here. I came in after Britain had turned into part of the Nazi Empire. Putty came into existence just literally minutes before the Vanguard was boarding the rocket ship off Earth. Nice to know you are still using another one of my characters, Lord Justin St. Johns aka Morningstar.

DavidMcMahon wrote:Yeah, I joined later. It's one of the reasons Putty doesn't exist here. I came in after Britain had turned into part of the Nazi Empire. Putty came into existence just literally minutes before the Vanguard was boarding the rocket ship off Earth. Nice to know you are still using another one of my characters, Lord Justin St. Johns aka Morningstar.

I remember when we had loads of plot lines going, a massive conspiracy over several character threads that resulted in the change in the time line and Nazi Germany winning the war. Suddenly the 21st Century was overridden with Nazi culture, language and world view. And not unlike now, we were strangers in our own land.

Anyway loving the plot line, but its thrown up something for me. I've noticed how cautious its made me. Because of the peculiar sense that when one is unfamiliar in what ought to be a familiar, it makes me ultra cautious. Its a bit like waking up in your own home, only to find lots of subtle changes that start to erode that confidence. And so when everything is new, but you don't know where the battle lines lie, which way is up, I find I play it really cautious.

However this isn't D&D and Lionheart isn't a fragile 1st level character. Perhaps I ought to be more bold, I'm starting to regret not challenging that boss and the base to see what I could do to them, or they to me. After all he is called Lionheart, not Tabby Cat! So maybe in this new chapter Lionheart ought to be a bit bolder, not stupid, just less cautious (which goes against my desire to lock things down more tightly so I remain comfortable) but perhaps now is a good time to cast out in a new direction for Lionheart and eject my normal level of caution for greater boldness and courage and see where the fun out of my normal comfort zone takes me

Sj

Well, in fairness there is already a reckless character. Alex just dive-bombed someone that I know can off him in a pair of hits.. against his best defence. However, Lionheart is extremely powerful from what I've seen. Not all at once mind. Your power reserve makes you quite flexible and potentially insanely powerful. At max strength you can crush diamond with your bare hands. Given your two minute regeneration time you played that pretty smart, but you can always just zip around and evade until you can heal if you ever in a situation like that again. Boosting your regeneration might be a good choice for character growth.

As an aside, what size of HP rewards are you thinking of using Paul? I know that by the book collecting enough points to be useful for character growth can be kind of a glacial process, especially at the level some of us are functioning at. Stormbreaker putting his Dex up from 9 to 10 would be 105 points and Lionhearts Power reserve will be something like 150 or 200 points. It's just kind of starting to dawn on me how expensive that can get, especially adding new powers from scratch..

Good question. The progress of character advancement in play by post is always a tricky thing to get right. My gut instinct says two or three times the normal rate of advance in a face to face game because what would take place over the course of a week or so of play takes months in play by post. Open to ideas, but I'm aware of the need to give *some* advance even if it takes longer to get there. And yeah, it hasn't escaped my notice no one has any hero points to spend (or not many, at best). Gives you chance to rely on the character numbers rather than boosting with HP and get to know what they can do before you start spending HP.

Perhaps a house rule. Normal rate of advance (HP awards) but you can opt to ringfence Hero points and get 2 (or maybe 3) character points to spend when you improve the character, but cannot thereafter spend those points in game. Decision made when you get (earn) the points, so you have character points (spent on advancement) and hero points, and the two cannot be mixed.

Example:

Lionheart gets 75Hp for the adventure he's in. Dave sets aside 40 for character advancement and has 80 character points to spend, but only 35HP to use in his next adventure. Even if he desperately needs those points, they are coned off and out of bounds thereafter...

As for using old characters (David M) I intend to have cameos and characters crop up which you and Dave E will recognize but have them recurring so everyone gets to know them.

Looks like a good idea. I like it personally, just one thing I would need cleared up. Which pool would I draw on for making artifacts? Character advancement points, or hero points? That's pretty well irrelevant to everyone else but its somewhat crucial to Stormbreaker

Dunecat, at some point, artifact creation might be an option for Kyoko, and presumably, this question would also apply to gadgeteers, so it is a good question to ask.
Also, it is your turn again elsewhere.

Admin, essentially what it sounds like you are saying is that hero points for advancement are simply counted for double or triple. If you plan on giving about three times as many for an online adventure as compared to a F2F one due to the time it takes, then realize that people would advance at six to nine times the normal rate. That will lead to very very powerful characters, and everyone already is very powerful. That is not a bad thing, buit something to keep in mind. My initial thought on your ideas are as follows:

- I would not triple the number of hero points given at the end of an adventure. If you did so, and people elected not to send them on advancement, the heroes would be carrying a huge, huge amount of hero points that would make many challenges meaningless. I would stick with the normal amount of hero points to maintain the challenges.

- I would not fence off the points. For one thing, it would be easier not to do so since that is one less thing to keep track of. It also gives a nicer dilemma to characters. Do we spend it when needed or save it to improve later? It is one thing to decide that when things are quiet, and another to do so in the heat of an adventure, so that is a nice thought to have and question to keep.

- This is not a D&D game, and advancement is less important to a character in a superhero genre, but it is also a game, so it is nice to have that improvement, and despite being built on a lot of points, I am certain everyone has things that they would like to purchase and improve on. I know I do! So, if you would like to feature similar improvement to what would be exerienced at the tabletop, then your thought to allow advancement points to count for two or three times the normal amount would allow that, and would make the additional of additional expensive powers a possibility. So, I do like this thought.

- Since gadgets and artifacts are parts of characters (some heroes are only gadgets and artifacts), one could argue that they would also gain the benefit of the doubling or tripling of character advancement. However, since they already receive divisors on their cost, and since they already use the initial charater creation table not the more expensive increasing attribute table, and as they are likely not doubled in cost as every other advantage someone takes is, they already receive more than enough bonuses to not need the additional doubling. Giving them that would likely make them far too inexepnsive to build and make tham far too powerful and easily gained. So, I would think that just using the normal cost for gadgets and artifacts would be best.

I love this talk of advancement. Previously we'd kind of winged it a bit. That and the fact we had these shadow creatures, who were a bit of a loaded gun, as Dave M knows only to well.

But the idea of being one again in a campaign world with a full rosta of NPC's, arch enemies and then the option to build on this, makes me dizzy with delight. I think that the last two years or so we were in WW2 but knew we were people out of time, meant in the back of my head we were never here for the long run. Now we're back in 'our own time' sort off, its a chance to really invest longer term. And Hero development is part of that.

When I look back on my two favourite character Batman and Spiderman, in many ways the more things have changed the more they've stayed the same. Character advancement has been a double edged sword. As things have gone forward, looking back over which has been quite a slow pace, things have escalated to match that. So personally I don't mind a slow rate of advancement, I'm not desperate to get faster still or stronger. Right now I'm excited to try out my powers and explore the intriguing world we're part off. Later on, it would be great to spend points on a secret base, on improving ones lot in life, yes perhaps gadgets, Frostbot mk 2 body/sidekick anyone, or Lionheart's skill binocular device rebuilt etc.

I also like the idea of HP being a resource that one uses or saves but its a personal choice. One that I hope will become easier to make once we become accustomed to the power levels and challenges we face.

So I think there is no real need to make us feel like we're gaining progress too quickly, however there are advantages to making improvements narratively, in game. Yes this might from time to time mean character improvement on a wink and a nod. A sudden surge in power as a reward for great RPing or gamemanship and living up to heroic ideals. A boast to character income, a rich patron bank rolls the party. I think there are narrative campaign rewards that can be given to the party, as before that also add a sense of progress, without having to upping power levels. Also another improvement might be to go sideways with powers adding benefits or tricks to existing power levels which add versatility but not threat as a way to improve. Much the way Sue Richards learned to do with her force field or invisibility etc.

Sj

Steeple_jackuk wrote:Later on, it would be great to spend points on a secret base, on improving ones lot in life, yes perhaps gadgets, Frostbot mk 2 body/sidekick anyone, or Lionheart's skill binocular device rebuilt etc.

Normally the HQ advantage cannot be gained later through hero points. If you do not have it to start with then you must build or acquire your own. So, in many cases, hero points do not need to be spent on a base, as it will all be acquired through Wealth rolls for items you do not need to build yourself, but can purchase. This is also an area where advantages like Connections, Credentials, and similar things can help- to allow you to acquire things you might not otherwise be able to acquire due to rarity or legality or otherwise. So, you might want to use hero points to establish those relationships that are not created in play to gain yourself access to things for the base itself. Of course, this is not such an issue for Kyoko, as she already has an expansive headquarters- her genie bottle. But it is hard to have visitors drop in, so if we do meet up as a group, something else would likely be needed.

Improving ones lot in life is often done with character wealth as well, not hero points. However, wealth is the one thing that cannot be increased with hero points, unless the DM house rules that. Normally, you are assumed to be able to afford the normal things ytou would need at your wealth level, food, etc. But once a month there is an Upkeep roll to keep yourself in your lifestyle. Roll average and you pay your bills for the month (so the remaining wealth checks for the month can be spent on gadget building, buying a headquarters or other nice items, or donated to charity). Roll poorly and you hit financial hardships and your wealth score drops one or two points. Roll a critical failure and you go bankrupt with a wealth of 0. However, if you roll very well, your wealth instead increases from a financial windfall. You receive one free wealth check each week (again, one per month goes for the upkeep roll). If you want to make more wealth checks in a week, such as you made a wealth check to buy parts for gadgets yesterday, but today you need to purchase a car, then you can make the additional wealth check but must spend a few hero points to do so.

Gadgets usually need both hero points and wealth to build. A wealth check to buy the parts, and hero points for game balance.

Steeple_jackuk wrote:So I think there is no real need to make us feel like we're gaining progress too quickly, however there are advantages to making improvements narratively, in game. Yes this might from time to time mean character improvement on a wink and a nod. A sudden surge in power as a reward for great RPing or gamemanship and living up to heroic ideals. A boast to character income, a rich patron bank rolls the party. I think there are narrative campaign rewards that can be given to the party, as before that also add a sense of progress, without having to upping power levels. Also another improvement might be to go sideways with powers adding benefits or tricks to existing power levels which add versatility but not threat as a way to improve. Much the way Sue Richards learned to do with her force field or invisibility etc.

I see what you mean about the narrative increases, although it can be noted that much of that is accounted for in the game system. A sudden power surge is simply reresented by the standard advancement. Remember each time you increase something by 1 point, it is double the power. So, since it is quite an advance, I think that there is no need for it to advance narratively. We all have the ability to increase it as we wish with hero points. And even if you do not wish to do so permantently, sending hero points on your rolls for AV or EV essentially is the exact same thing. So, we already have great flexibility in that respect to guide and grow your character as you wish. I would also personally preser to handle that kind of advancement myself rather than having it administratively upgraded.

A rich patron could be a connection of some sort, or most likely, the addition of the Rich Friend advantage.

Going sideways with your powers is called a trick power. You would tell the Admin what power you are trying to do with your existing power, and if he approves, then you make a trick power roll. (The AV/EV is your original power, the OV/RV is double the factor cost of whatever power you are trying to duplicate). Any RAPs earned are the allowable APs for the trick power. The trick power cannot have a higher base cost than the original power. Then, to use the power, you would spend hero points. It would be 5 times the base cost of the trick power, plus the cost per AP for pushing a power per AP engaged.

So, someone with superspeed at 14 APs who wishes to vibrate through a wall normally cannot, since that would require dispersal power. But he can spend hero points to temporarily gain the power, as a trick based on his superspeed. It is possible since speedsters often do this, and the base cost of dispersal is lower than superspeed. So, the roll's AV/EV would be 14/14 and the OV/RV would be 12 (2x6 for the factor cost of dispersal). If successful, they would be able to use the disersal power at as many APs as RAPs were scored, to a maximum of 14 (the original power). To actually use it, you would then pay 50 hero points per use (5 x the factor cost), plus 1 hero per AP of dispersal you use (if the genre cost is 1 for pushing).

Now, you must spend hero points to perform the related power, but in at least one book, those points were considered added to advancement for that particular power, so they were not actually lost for good, they were tallied and remembered for buying that power. So once you had done the trick enough (ie there has been enough hero points to buy the power outright, you had mastered it and have added the power to your sheet. I think that might have been in the Blood of Heroes Sidekick Sourcebook, but I do not think that is used anymore, as I do not see it in the deluxe rulebook anymore.

Hey Deeyin,

thanks for the explanation, this is where my knowledge of the rules is totally lacking. But your help in clarifying things is great. Thank you.

I guess that what remains true is that we're now more likely in a narrative world, where we can invest meaningfully in things (jobs relationships, HQ, wealth, status etc), because (well at least for my character Frostbite and to a lesser extent Lionheart) we feel this is 'home', where previously we there was a feeling of displacement. Therefore this is where we belong and where we want to make a difference, and so investing in those things that make us more effective is more motivated by our being 'home' in some senses.

Anyway thanks for the clarification, the more I hear about and understand the DC rules, the more I like what I hear and see.

Sj

Steeplejack, I understand completely. I like how you had described it and it makes sense. If I thought I was going to leave at any moment, I would not be nearly as invested either. So, your explanation was perfect. But you are right, as we are here, in a place we are likely all to stay, then we do have more reason to involve ourselves and truly integrate in important ways.

And one correction on the trick powers. It seems that the hero points were never placed towards the cost of the power, they have always just been spent. I looked in the Sidekick Sourcebook and it was not there. I asked my husband and he told me that was a house rule he used for his game, since it made buying powers more affordable if you could purchase them a use at a time in that manner, rather than have to wait to pay for the entire power all at once, and it also made game sense, since you could see the character working at developing the power. So, that might be an option to use here as well.

As for the game system itself, I have to say I am very impressed by it. So much thought has gone into it! I truly do love the system very much, so was very happy to be invited to play! ^_^

With regards the divisors for gadgets (basically gadgets are things that can be taken away or broken as opposed to inbuilt powers so they get a discount) that's a 4x modifier right there (or x2 for not being taken away) so they'd have to be improved by spending hero points.

Deeyin - I maybe didn't explain what I was suggesting clearly enough, but here is (one possible) solution to the dilemma that slower paced gaming by post presents to this game.

1) Finish the adventure and get the Hero points awards.
2) Decide there and then how many of those are kept as hero points and how many go into a character improvement pool (getting a x2). Do you leave points in the Hero Point pool and increase your chances of success or throw everything into improvement and hopefully improve faster as a result, but suffer along the way? That's your call
3) Once that decision is made (hero points or character points) it cannot be reversed and the points are ring fenced from each other. You can spend character points to improve the character whenever you earn more, but not in-between (i.e. during an adventure).

Example:

Kyoko battles outrageous odds and gets 90HP for her efforts. Dee puts 60 into character improvement and sees them double to 120. She can't spend them on anything other than character improvement and must spend them immediately or wait until the next time the character improves. That leaves 30HP to get her through the next adventure, which as anyone knows, can vanish real quick! The dilemma of whether to hold onto them or get that character improvement bonus by sacrificing versatility and the ace in the hole of having hero points is entirely up to Dee...

Advancement will be faster (less adventures to advance) but the adventuring takes *much* longer via play by post to complete an adventure. We've been playing this game since 2009 (or at least two of us have and everyone came at some point after) so worrying about whether long term progression will even take place at all should be cast aside - I'm here as long as someone is happy to play, even though my schedule sometimes kicks me in the backside! I've seen play by post games start in a frantic flurry of posting and by two weeks or so later it's all but died out, because for many players the pace is too slow and they can't ever see the characters improving. In a game like D&D, as pointed out, improvement is critical to maintaining interest and improving characters. In a supers game you are *sort of* starting at 10th, 20th or higher level as an equivalent to D&D in regards status and capability, so gaining the odd point when you already have 20APs energy blast doesn't mean that much. It might mean more if your character had 6APs energy blast and saw it rise to 7 after several successful adventures but that would take months of play in play by post and I figure to keep players interested and seeing their characters grow it would need a tweaking of the advancement rate, though not to the extent I think a Fantasy RPG with a levelling system might.

I think some of you guys play D&D 4e and I can't imagine what that game'd be like by post. I hear that it takes long enough when playing face to face, so it might well be unplayable in a format such as we play here I guess.

As an example I play in a Tunnels and Trolls game and it's taken 2 years or so to gain a level. I can't see the game lasting beyond the current adventure (if it even gets that far) but I'm happy to play even if the character is more or less the same as it started out as, though I know a lot of players don't like play by post because of that reason - can't please all the players all the time...

If I were running a Fantasy RPG I'd ditch the xp gain from treasure and award XP based on the individual achievements of the characters and how hard they found it. The easier you find a task the less xp you gain from it. If you scrape over the target number by 1 point you get the most experience from it, and so on.

Oops. Going off on a tangent. I plan (later on today, Easter Sunday) to get some background information up so there *might* not be an update, or just get half of the updates done (in order).

Also considering toying with a random update order so that the same players don't have to wait more than a couple of days for an update.

Open to ideas as usual

Other things on my list:

Update character sheets, tweak some characters (maybe Frostbite and Frostbot, Lionheart, Haunt, Silver Sentinel for the most part - everyone else seems to *just about* be where they need to be)

Post background info on places, events, characters and organisations

Updates

Hello Admin, perhaps I was not clear in my resonse, but I understood exactly what you were saying. I simply do not prefer that method. Fencing them off into seperate character and advancement leads to another level of unnecessary bookkeeping and also loses some of the drama of their use. As I said, if it is done in the manner you suggest, deciding how many you will put towards advancement when things are quiet at the end of an adventure, it is not a dramatic choice at all. It is a logical thought process where you weigh the pros and cons of dividing them into an effective manner that balances your needs. While that is good mechanically, it is not dramatic or exciting at all. However, when they are not divided into seperate pools and are kept all together in one pool for both advancement and use, then you do have that drama every time you choose to use them. Yes, you are making yourself more successful and solving a problem by using them, but are also reducing the pool you have left for advancement, and you are doing that every time you spend hero points, so it means more when you are spending them at that time.

I have no strong opinion on ther actual rate of advancement, be it fast or slow. Yes, I agree that there should be some advancement. As Steeplejack stated very well, we want to become more involved in the world, and that will require hero points (although some things like added connections and the like could be granted through play) so there must be some for that, as well as for power tricks and the like. But on the other hand, it should not be so fast that the characters are suddenly unrecognizeable, or that they have a quantum leap in power. Someone of a spiderman power level should not suddenly become a world class superman power level without some in game reason.

I think the update order is fine. Whomever is at the bottom has likely been waiting the longest time for an update since posting, so it is fair to respond to them first. The only other alternative I could think of is that you would start from whomever has the least number of responses so far, since they have not had as much play as others who have been able to respond more often. So, for example, Stormbringer and Red Dragon would be answered before Haunt and Kyoko, since we have had more responses already in general. The downside though is that it might not get back to us for quite a while. So, I rather like the first method better, just going from the bottom and working your way up.

I just noticed the powered skill section, so I might tweak Kyoko a bit. I do not think so, but it is a possibility.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Happy Easter Dee (and all), thanks for the kind words. I've got nothing more to add than on response rates.

Paul i know you do an amazing job of keeping things going. I often feel a little guilty, as I often respond as soon as an update through (apart from when I've not been alerted and not looked for a day or so ) I love getting a quick response, (apart from where you back me into a corner and I need time to think!) But at the same time I am aware that my being able to respond quickly, should not pressure you into getting back to me quicker, if other people have also been waiting.

Being part of a bigger pool of players means that the response time will inevitably drop, as you share out your time and responses fairly. So people like me, just need to be gown up and patient and that is ok. I'll cope

Sj

I like the current posting set up.. except when I'm on the edge of my seat cause I'm expecting to be pasted to the wall by William Wallaces super powered cousin. Rationally it works really well however, so I'm all for it.

As for character progression, why don't we just have each HP spent on character advancement count as 2 points? That kind of gets the faster progression rate while also keeping the native flexibility. Naturally I feel that any advancement at all needs to be reflected by plot elements in the story. Suddenly gaining 3 points of strength is a big deal after all, so is a character suddenly getting an entirely new power. I have lots of character advancement I'd like to do, most of it is all lateral though, I want Alex (my character) to develop some more individual spells and eventually package them together as sorcery, Stormbreaker (the sword) to eventually grant weather control, and perhaps an AoE lightening attack. While that all adds to his power level, none of it would be breaking the characters 15 AP power ceiling. I wouldn't be any more powerful but I would become vastly more versatile.

On the subject of Artifact/gadgets I have a few thoughts. My question was mostly to seperate if creating new gadgets/adjusting existing ones was a character growth action, or a in game character action. Per the rules it's a in game action using several dice checks and the mandatory spending of hero points just to perform the rolls, plus the expense to actually develop the items. They do however get their costs divided by 2, 4, or even 5 for omni-gadgets.

For the interaction of superspeed with artifact creation, I have an idea that I think should be balanced. All artifact creation may benefit from 1 AP of superspeed to represent time saved on the simple physical preparation that all item creation requires, for each AP to be installed that is below the creators Occultist skill, another AP of super speed may be used, this represents that more of the energies needed to create the item can come from the occultists own energies, or for more simplistic rituals that are used.

As an example, Alex has Occultist 9, and gains superspeed 5 from having Stormbreaker on his person (Sheathed or not, he can still access it's powers so long as he is in contact with the weapon). Having recently lost his more traditional costume in a battle with the Hell-drake Ysarathus he sets out to build a new costume. He wants to install a variety of abilities, most importantly, a highly resilient body of 10. As that excedes his Occultist action of 9 he chooses to add an additional AP of time to the base time, resulting in a 2 week building time. Drawing on Stormbreakers superspeed he can shave some time, but much of the work is very advanced, so he can only use one AP of superspeed, cutting the time in half down from two weeks to one.

After, he wants to install the ability to heal faster in the form of 5 APs of regeneration. This is considerably easier and he can complete the work drawing on only his own energy. Applying his full 5 APs of superspeed to the effort, he finishes in roughly 5 hours! If he was working on something at 6 APs he could only use 4 Aps of speed an it would take 10 hours, and at 7AP he would only get 4APs of speed, and it would take almost a full day of non stop work to finish. This continues untill he can only apply 1 AP of superspeed at any ability being installed for 9 APs of higher.

This use of superspeed with creating artifacts requires having a workshop that is rated at the same APs of the users Occultist skill, or at the APs of the ability to be installed, whichever is higher. Of course, creating a workshop is a mostly mundane task and could always benefit from full APs of superspeed.. but who knows how much would be involved in the work?

Have run out of time (01.25am, up at 6am doh) but there's more Background info up. Long time players will recognise much of it as its an updated (albeit rewritten mostly from scratch save the last part) version of the previous campaign background. It's posted here so let me know if you will please if there are any problems viewing it before I post the following sections in the same format...